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Change in Elven Interpretation of "Harellan"
Ready to put your tinfoil hat on, ladies and gents? So...the Solas chatzy thought really hard on this question: Why did the meaning of harellan change from "noble struggle" to "traitor to one's kin" in the Towers Age? So far, here is our theory. The Towers Age is the age directly after the Glory Age, when the 2nd Exalted March and the fall of the Dales took place. During this time period the elves were told to convert to Andraste and the Maker, or be killed. Those elves that now call themselves Dalish take an oath to hold to their ancient beliefs. So how did Fen'harel go from the noble rebel to the traitor? We theorize that the change was deliberate. All modern Dalish lore is known to have come from Keeper Gisharel of Clan Ralaferin. This is mentioned in a codex found in the Emerald Graves on the body of a scholar: “These appear to be the scribbled notes of a scholar named Erwine Cavy. The elements have ruined most of the writing: …ow many times have I sought information on the Dalish only to find that it is, once again, a tale told by “Keeper Gishrael of the Raladerin Clan”? We can’t have one keeper from years ago be our sole source of knowledge on the Dalish. There must be other voices in the Dalish clans. Other voices that… The elves cannot all be as hostile as most would… A dark smear obscures the writing… conclude that is it our prejudice speaking, when we repeat these damaging untrut… …when I return, the university will finally acknowledge my contributions to Theodosian history. Ferdinand Genitivi, step aside! …remarkably difficult to locate. I’m walking in circles. But take heart, Erwine! This is all for a good cause. There must be someone in the forest who can point me to the Dalish. I’ll ask the next person I come…” To have only one source of Dalish lore that contrasts so strongly to previous interpretations (at least in the case of Fen'Harel) sounds suspiciously like a coverup. But why have a coverup at all? We theorize that after the fall of the Dales, a new elven "narrative" was crafted specifically to raise Dalish morale. In order to do that, the elven pantheon must seem good and just, and their imprisonment a terrible crime. Unfortunately for Fen'Harel, he was there to take the fall. Many thanks to Jadestone, Moondancer, and everybody else who contributed to this crack-brained post Category:Elven language ----- Jadestone here with some additional thoughts from our discussion: The note about Keeper Gisharel is what's super interesting to me. If you look at our Codex entries by him, you'll see that he is almost the sole resource on the Elven pantheon--all the entries for the gods & both for Arlathan were written by him (here's his list of entries) There's not much information about the dude himself though, other than that he was Keeper for the Ralaferin (that I could find at least). He doesn't have his own page in the wiki, though he's mentioned in the "Keepers" article & those sources. If there is more, someone please link me!! I really wanna know. We have a bit more info about the Clan since it's where the multiplayer characters are from, but not much on Gisharel specifically. It's worth noting he also authored the information on Vallaslin. So, we know already that he got one thing majorly wrong. So: was he just misinformed about the gods? Or deliberate reshaping of Elven mythology in order to provide guidance/hope for a now fragmented & dying people? Unfortunately, we don't know where Gisharel got HIS information from. It's possible he was misled, or unknowingly spread things that weren't true. But since the game specifically has someone questioning him as a source of information, it seems like a hint to me that more is up with that. I'm not 100% sure what, but I enjoy putting on the tinfoil hat & calling it suspicious. Also worth note is that Tevinter may have tried to twist Elven mythology themselves after their enslavement/before their uprising. Can't have a god of Rebellion being idolized by the people you're forcing to work for you! By transforming him into a trickster god, they not only get rid of "rebellion" as a theme but turn him into someone to be distrusted & wary of. This way, if any lore DOES survive intact, Elvish slaves are still unlikely to trust it--it could just be another of Fen'harel's tricks to mess with them again. It could be possible that the reformatting of Elvhen lore began even before the elves reclaimed independence, but without access to tevinter libraries/resources, wouldn't know about the alterations (if there were even records of this sort of thing). Category:Elven Mythology